It has been a tough week for Vanessa, the widow of basketball legend Kobe Bryant. She is suing the Los Angeles Country Sheriff and its entire department for leaking crash site pictures.
Vanessa Bryant alleges that Los Angeles county deputies took personal photographs of Kobe, their 13-year-old daughter Gianna, along with seven people who died in a tragic helicopter crash.
According to a lawsuit obtained by TMZ, “No fewer than eight sheriff’s deputies at the crash site, pulled out their cell phones and snapped photos of the dead children, parents, and coaches.”
“The deputies took these photos for their own personal gratification,” it added.
The lawsuit, which was filed last week, described the events in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva reportedly told Mrs. Bryant that his deputies were securing the crash site where onlookers have started to gather.
The lawsuit that the “biggest threat to the sanctity of the victims’ remains proved to be the Sheriff’s Department itself.”
Sheriff Villanueva later admitted that his deputies took photos of the remains of Kobe Bryant and the other victims.
One deputy, allegedly, used the photo in an attempt to impress a woman at a bar.
Luckily, their conversation was overheard by a bartender who later filed a written complaint with the department.
However, Sheriff Villanueva ordered his deputies to delete the photo so they wouldn’t face discipline.
Vanessa Bryant is seeking unspecified damages, including punitive damages. She also claimed that the Sheriff and the department had caused her severe emotional distress.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxYER-JngPv/
Sofia Laine’s accusations
Meanwhile, Vanessa’s mother, Sofia Laine, spoke in an interview that her daughter kicked her out of her home.
Speaking on the program “El Gorda y La Flaca,” Sofia accused Vanessa of forcing her out of the Bryant’s California home and insisted that she returned the car she was using.
Sofia said in Spanish, “She told me, ‘I need you to get out of this house.’ She also told me that she wanted her car, and she wants it now.”
Vanessa fires back
The 38-year-old slammed her mother’s claims.
In a statement released to the program, Vanessa Bryant said, “My husband and daughter passed away unexpectedly, and yet my mother had the audacity to do a television interview speaking negatively of me while shedding tears for a car and a house that were not in her name.”
Her statement continued, “She has removed all her diamond jewelry, emptied the apartment I provided, and put away the furniture to make it look like she doesn’t have my support.”
Vanessa further claimed that she and Kobe had supported Sofia financially for the last 20 years. This is on top of her monthly alimony.
Vanessa concluded that she no longer wants to have anything to do with her mother.
Mrs. Bryant said, “Now I see what is most important to my mother and it’s more than painful.”
“I hope that everything that is coming out about our personal relationship ends here,” the mom-of-four concluded.
Image courtesy of Asia Society/Southern California 2009 Annual Gala Dinner/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0